My fondness for the FPS genre really developed back in the 90s playing games such as DOOM, Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein. As the genre advanced I grew to enjoy the map editor features of HALO’s Forge that allowed me to create my own maps to play and share with friends and other players. This is where Gunscape takes over, using a familiar ‘Minecraft’ visual style to base itself on the map editor concept but with a clear love of 90s FPS games. The goal is to create your own maps that can be shared with other creators and to play content made by others.
The core of Gunscape is the ability to create your own worlds and levels in the ‘Build Mode’ and share them with the growing online community whilst enjoying the creations of other builders. Taking inspiration from Minecraft in that regard but it is firmly grounded in reliving the glory days of old in the FPS genre. If like me you grew up in that time, Gunscape offers a tremendous trip down memory lane both in its visual style and the content you can use to build your world. But if you are from the more modern generation, those very things may look rather dated instead of nostalgic.
The building side can take time however and feels rather cumbersome on a controller rather than a traditional keyboard and mouse. But if prepared to invest time into learning how it works and practice what you can build, the reward of a satisfying use of your time will be for the taking. I did find that most of the official guides I could find online were only written with the PC version in mind, so plenty of keyboard based instructions rather than helpful tips for using a console controller.
It does have a barebones story mode but it really just feels like a demo for what you can create yourself in Gunscape. As a mode it just felt almost shoehorned in because Gunscape really is about the content you can make to play and share. As a demonstration for what you can create it does deliver in that regard but it certainly is not the main selling point or reason to pick the game up and play. It almost tries to showcase what the FPS icons of the 90s were like but at a time when shooters have never looked more visually impressive, it will be easy to look at Gunscape and dismiss it.
Ultimately Gunscape will succeed or fail on its community as a result of the need to share content. At time of writing, it has a community that is growing on console and with the success of Minecraft, Gunscape clearly wants to tap into the popularity of creating and sharing content. But due to the niche choice to focus on making FPS content rather than worlds to explore, Gunscape has set itself a huge challenge up against more mainstream shooters who have their own content creation suites that their community’s can share content.
Patience is key to get the best out of this game and a fondness for 90s FPS games will greatly enhance the enjoyment but it’s reliance on that as well as needing a thriving community to grow its potential could be brilliant or a curse. With just a short time after release it is clear it needs more time to grow. The build suite is not best suited to a controller but still viable.
Gunscape won’t reach Minecraft level of success but it is an interesting content creation title and I enjoyed a nice trip down memory lane to my youth but that may not be enough of a selling point for the mainstream gamer.
